Charcuterie - Salt, smoke and cure

[jlg]

Admitedly, I only looked back through the archives a year. But where are the recipes for dry cured sausage and other traditional cured meat products? Certainly, this is a group with a bit of meat on their hands, at least at times.

Perhaps a decent place to start is home cured bacon. Ever tried making it? It's pretty simple.

one 3 to 5 pound pork belly
30 gram kosher salt
15 g. sugar
5 g. pink or curing salt

optional:

1/2 C. maple syrup or bgrown sugar

for a more savory bacon add 5 smashed cloves garlic and 10 g. black pepper.

Just rub the pork belly with the cure and refrigerate for seven to ten days. You'll know it's done when the belly feels firm.

When cured rinse the belly well and smoke to your desired taste. Normally bacon is smoked or cooked to an internal temp of about 150 and then you are done.

But that's just bacon. What other cured meats are folks making?

John

[Adofish]

Originally Posted by jlg

Admitedly, I only looked back through the archives a year. But where are the recipes for dry cured sausage and other traditional cured meat products? Certainly, this is a group with a bit of meat on their hands, at least at times.

Perhaps a decent place to start is home cured bacon. Ever tried making it? It's pretty simple.

one 3 to 5 pound pork belly
30 gram kosher salt
15 g. sugar
5 g. pink or curing salt

optional:

1/2 C. maple syrup or bgrown sugar

for a more savory bacon add 5 smashed cloves garlic and 10 g. black pepper.

Just rub the pork belly with the cure and refrigerate for seven to ten days. You'll know it's done when the belly feels firm.

When cured rinse the belly well and smoke to your desired taste. Normally bacon is smoked or cooked to an internal temp of about 150 and then you are done.

But that's just bacon. What other cured meats are folks making?

John

I do my own bacon as well. I am hoping to make charcuterie my next career. To answer your question, I also do:

Pancetta: Pretty much the same cure as bacon without the smoking.

Corned Beef: I usually use top round instead of brisket for a leaner product. Just put an 8lb. top round in the cure yesterday for Saint Pats.

Pastrami: Just like the Corned Beef but rubbed with pepper then smoked.

Pate

Duck Confit

Coppa

Sausages of many kinds.

The next new project will be Italian Dry Salami.

Adolph

[TEC]

I normally use boneless shoulders for bacon. 4 shoulders or roughly 30lbs fits nicely in a 10g bucket with 2.5g brine. Give the shoulders about a 20% pump and soak for about 4 days.

I do pretty much the same for pastrami, but I let it soak for at least 4 weeks and add black pepper, garlic and coriander.

Now all I have to figure out is how to put a exhaust filter on the smoker so no one can smell it.

[jlg]

Originally Posted by Adofish

The next new project will be Italian Dry Salami.

Adolph

I hung ten pounds of pork chorizo for dry cure in the cellar today. We'll see in aobut 20 days how it looks.

Dry curing takes a little patience but you can realy get some great things. The hard part is finding a place to maintain to 50 to 60 degree temp and 60 to 70 percent hummidity. Where will you hang the salami?

John